After Redeeming the Paranoid Villain [Transmigration] - Chapter 2

Gu Chen’s face remained expressionless. If anything, the slight furrow of his brows betrayed a hint of impatience.

Su Yu caught this tiny change in expression instantly and sighed inwardly. It was clear that the original Su Yu had been deeply disliked by Gu Chen.

As Su Yu remained silent, Gu Chen watched him quietly. For some reason, this person, who usually annoyed him to the point of a headache, seemed different today.

Gu Chen narrowed his eyes slightly. He realized that Su Yu had been standing there for a long time without saying a single word. Normally, by now, that human-shaped sack of a man known as “Su Yu” would have already been clinging to him.

Gu Chen’s elegant fingertips tapped lightly on the armrest of his wheelchair. He looked at Su Yu as if he were scrutinizing an object. Sensing the gaze, Su Yu tightened his grip on his suitcase and avoided Gu Chen’s eyes. For reasons he could not explain, he felt a flicker of fear toward this man.

As Su Yu looked away, a specific description from the book’s author suddenly flashed through his mind:

Holding an umbrella in the rain, he seemed to hear a sound. He turned and walked toward a nearby thicket. Beneath the shrubs, a small yellow kitten curled up under some sparse leaves, trying to shield itself from the wind and rain. But the leaves were too small, and the kitten was already soaked. Gu Chen knelt down to look at the shivering creature. After a long silence, he sighed, gently stroked the kitten’s head, and said in a low voice that echoed through the rainy night, “Come home with me.”

Looking at the cold and detached Gu Chen upstairs, Su Yu could not believe that someone who would bring a kitten home on a rainy day could be truly evil. Perhaps Gu Chen was simply cold on the surface while still retaining a shred of humanity deep down.

This thought convinced Su Yu. When he met Gu Chen’s eyes again, his heart felt more at ease. Gu Chen surely was not as heartless as he appeared.

With this newfound confidence, Su Yu gathered his courage and carried his suitcase up to the second floor.

Gu Chen frowned as he watched Su Yu carry the suitcase step by step into his personal territory. Irritation welled up in his heart. His icy expression shifted into visible disgust and impatience.

He never liked anyone intruding on his space.

“Do you want to die?”

Gu Chen’s voice was frigid. Even though he was sitting in a wheelchair, he projected the aura of a monarch looking down at a mere ant.

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Chen’s eyelashes trembled slightly, and a flash of vulnerability crossed his eyes, as if he were enduring a sudden wave of pain.

Su Yu paused at the words, but he gritted his teeth and walked to Gu Chen’s side anyway.

After a moment of hesitation, Su Yu knelt down in front of him.

Startled by the sudden movement, Gu Chen reacted with instinctive defensiveness. He used the remote to move his wheelchair back sharply, re-establishing a safe distance between them.

Seeing the wariness in Gu Chen’s eyes, Su Yu felt a pang of heartache. The book’s description of Gu Chen had always been tragic. An unhappy childhood and a life spent being unloved had cast a shadow over him. Even though the current Gu Chen was a formidable force in the business world, the habits formed from childhood abuse remained.

Gu Chen never liked people getting close. He had never known a sense of security.

As Su Yu looked at the guarded man, the knowledge of Gu Chen’s hidden past, which he had learned from the novel, made his heart ache. The fear he had felt just moments ago was completely replaced by compassion.

The wary Gu Chen watched as Su Yu suddenly flipped open his suitcase. After rummaging through it for a while, Su Yu pulled out a blanket printed with a ridiculous, large-headed duck.

Under Gu Chen’s astonished gaze, Su Yu draped the blanket over Gu Chen’s legs.

“The weather is getting cold. Do not neglect your health. If you do not take care of yourself, you might end up with chronic complications,” Su Yu said, keeping his head down as if he were afraid to look up.

Su Yu truly did not dare to look at him. He had intended to cover Gu Chen with a blanket, but he had not expected that his suitcase would contain nothing but Psyduck pajamas and a Psyduck blanket.

He did not know why the original owner loved Psyduck so much, but since the suitcase was already open and the gesture was in motion, closing it abruptly would make him look like a fool. So, Su Yu braced himself and, under Gu Chen’s grim gaze, placed the Psyduck blanket, which clashed violently with Gu Chen’s aura, over the man’s legs.

This was not just a random whim. Su Yu remembered from the original plot that when the two met in the villa, Gu Chen was suffering from intense leg pain. His sympathy had flared up, leading to the appearance of the unsightly duck blanket.

Gu Chen had always been a proud man. He never imagined he would one day become “disabled.” The car accident had seemingly ground all his pride into the dirt, leaving him battered and miserable. It was this very accident that had set Gu Chen on the path to becoming a villain.

Su Yu did not know why he had been transmigrated into this book, but since he was told he could control the plot’s direction, he wanted to prevent Gu Chen from becoming a villain, or at least stop him from dying a miserable death in prison as he did in the original story.

The chill on Gu Chen’s legs vanished under the blanket, and the piercing pain seemed to subside instantly. Even Gu Chen was surprised by his body’s reaction. He wondered why it felt normal when it had been agonizing just a moment ago.

He instinctively reached under the blanket to touch his legs. When he felt nothing, he snapped back to reality. His legs were still paralyzed. It was just the bone-chilling pain that had mysteriously vanished.

He looked up at Su Yu, then down at the hideous, wide-eyed duck on his lap. He gave a disdainful “tsk” but said nothing more.

Gu Chen watched Su Yu, who kept his head down and avoided eye contact. Even without seeing his face, Gu Chen could feel Su Yu’s tension and anxiety.

Fiddling with the remote in his hand, Gu Chen sneered inwardly, thinking he was practically a child.

“Go find Butler Wang and have him arrange a room for you,” Gu Chen said coldly. He then tossed the blanket back to a startled Su Yu. “And take your ugly duck with you. You are acting like a kid.”

Su Yu caught the blanket as it hit him in the face. He suppressed the urge to throw a punch, not because he was afraid he could not beat Gu Chen, but because he did not want to become a stepping stone on the villain’s path to power.

Survival came first.

Su Yu sighed. Carrying his small suitcase in one hand and clutching the wide-eyed duck blanket in the other, he hurried downstairs as if a monster were chasing him.

Watching Su Yu’s frantic departure, a hint of amusement rose in Gu Chen’s eyes. The usually fearless Su Yu was actually afraid of him.

Gu Chen found the thought entertaining, and his thin, usually cold lips curved into a faint smile.

It seemed his recovery period would not be too boring. While he was not sure why Su Yu had changed so drastically, he was certain Su Yu had a hidden motive for staying.

Meanwhile, Su Yu was completely lost in the world of the massive villa, oblivious to Gu Chen’s suspicions.

Gu Chen watched Su Yu happily exploring the house with his suitcase. He gave a light chuckle and steered his wheelchair into his own room.

Gu Chen’s room was pitch black. Even though it was daytime, no sunlight entered. Any that tried was blocked by heavy curtains. The entire room exuded a deathly darkness and a stifling gloom.

Gu Chen never liked light. He found it piercing and annoying.

But there was a deeper reason known to no one. Gu Chen felt that light was too bright. Even the smallest beam could expose how “filthy” he felt, making him feel ashamed and unable to face his own wretched state.

He knew he was trapped in a quagmire with no way out and no direction, merely gasping for breath in a chaotic prison.

In the darkness, a faint muffled groan escaped him, a sound thick with suppressed agony.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Gu Chen broke into a light sweat. He placed his hand on his legs, his thick eyelashes drooping to hide the fleeting vulnerability in his eyes. In that moment, Gu Chen was like a wounded beast, quietly licking his wounds in the dark.

On the other side, Su Yu was curiously taking in his surroundings. This was the largest villa he had ever seen in his life. In fact, he thought it was more like a palace.

While Su Yu was immersed in his awe, the butler, who had helped move his luggage, found him. “Young Master Su, it is time for dinner.”

Su Yu responded instinctively and followed the butler. In his memory, dinner was a casual affair where family sat around a table, chatting and sharing gossip. But when he sat down at a table so long he could not see the end of it, he fell silent.

He thought to himself that this was not a dinner, but rather a meeting with the President.

Looking at the staff busy preparing the meal around him, Su Yu could not help but complain wildly in his head.